Whistleblower complaints target quality of VA care

A top federal investigator said Monday that the Department of Veterans Affairs is risking patients’ health by not fully addressing whistleblower complaints about the quality of care. The VA’s acting director responded by launching an agency review.

By KEVIN FREKING ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 24, 2014 - 8:01 am

Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson speaks in Washington on June 18, 2014. A top federal investigator said Monday that the Department of Veterans Affairs is risking patients' health by not fully addressing whistleblower complaints about the quality of care. The VA's acting director responded by launching an agency review. Gibson said he was "deeply disappointed" in his own agency's failure to take the complaints seriously. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

WASHINGTON — A top federal investigator said Monday that the Department of Veterans Affairs is risking patients’ health by not fully addressing whistleblower complaints about the quality of care. The VA’s acting director responded by launching an agency review.

VA Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson said he was “deeply disappointed” in his own agency’s failure to take the complaints seriously.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Carolyn Lerner of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Monday that the VA consistently acknowledges problems but says patient care is not affected.

“This approach has prevented the VA from acknowledging the severity of systemic problems and from taking the necessary steps to provide quality care to veterans,” Lerner wrote to Obama. “As a result, veterans’ health and safety has been unnecessarily put at risk.”

Complaints about lack of access to VA health care have prompted a national outcry that led to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation. The most startling allegations have arisen out of the VA’s medical center in Phoenix, where a VA inspector general’s investigation found that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were “at risk of being lost or forgotten” after being kept off an official, electronic waiting list.

Lerner says the office is reviewing more than 50 complaints alleging threats to patient health and safety and has referred 29 of them to the VA for investigation.

Gibson said he would be designating an official to assess the conclusions reached by the Office of Special Counsel, as well as its proposed corrective actions.

He said the review would be completed within 14 days.

“I respect and welcome the letter and the insights from the Office of Special Counsel,” Gibson said. “I am deeply disappointed not only in the substantiation of allegations raised by whistleblowers, but also in the failures within VA to take whistleblower complaints seriously.”

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